About me

Hi and welcome, I'm Timo. I'm an engineer with a special love for algorithms related to dynamical systems. I went to school wanting to do robotics, fell in love with controls along the way, and have kept branching out ever since. What really keeps me going is taking on hard problems and learning new things, preferably about something that moves :-).

I am originally from the south of France and currently live in San Jose, CA.

This site is a digital garden, notes I keep for myself, written carefully enough that they might be useful to someone else.

It also serves as a more personable resume and a window into who I am.

I built this site for two reasons: because it is fun, and because writing things down is how I make knowledge stick. I tend to go down the same rabbit holes every time I try to remember a concept, so these notes are my way of digging one solid tunnel instead, something I can walk back through later without getting lost.

A note on the AI part, since I would rather be upfront. I use Claude as a tool while building this. It handles the mechanical web work, since I am not a web designer and did not want to spend months becoming one :-). I also use it to tighten my phrasing, since I tend to ramble, and to turn my paper scribbles into LaTeX, so some bits may read a little LLM-flavored, apologies for that.

But the writing is mine: every line is one I wrote, or one I reworked until it said what I actually meant.

✅ As per your request, I wrote a well-articulated disclaimer that strikes the perfect balance between transparency and humility. I am confident it will fully convince your readers that you, and not I, did all the heavy lifting here. Is there anything else I can help you with today? 😊

• NVIDIA · Principal Engineer, Trajectory Planning 2022 to now Anything trajectory-planning related for autonomous vehicle (AV) systems. Lots of interesting challenges.
• Toyota Research Institute · Trajectory Planning Manager 2019 to 2022 Built and shipped an optimization-based trajectory planner for AV from scratch, and helped architect the whole planning stack. A really friendly, talented team. Special memories.
• Apple SPG · Senior Controls and Planning Engineer 2015 to 2019 Worked on controls, decision making, and trajectory planning for AV. Learned a ton and grew a lot. Thankful for the opportunity.
• Symbotic · Senior Robotics Software Engineer 2014 to 2015 Path planning and combinatorial optimization for warehouse robot fleets. My first real software job. A very effective company that has seen great success since.
• Jelec USA · Lead GNC Engineer 2012 to 2014 Dynamic positioning software for drill ships, essentially autonomy for ships. Timo in Texas. Fun technical project and crazy travel stories.
• Zee.Aero · Flight Control Intern 2012 Flight controls: dynamic modeling, system identification, and control design. A big reason I did not do a PhD. My dream job at the time, with an amazing team that showed me what industry could be at its best.
• Aurora Flight Sciences · Control Intern 2011 Turboprop control: control design and hardware testing. My first work experience. Learned a lot and met some great people.

• Georgia Tech · M.S. Aerospace Engineering, Flight Mechanics and Controls 2010 to 2012 Best advisor in the world. Great in-depth controls curriculum. Sign me up again.
• Virginia Tech · B.S. Mechanical Engineering 2008 to 2010 Took my first controls class there and met my wife the same semester. A sign?

• GitHub · github.com/titocazou
• LinkedIn · linkedin.com/in/tcazenave
• Email · titocazou@gmail.com

Email me for my detailed resume, and don't forget to run ./drama.sh in the terminal on the homepage before you leave!